The syndicate of co-owners where the Vaughan shooter lived had asked the court to evict the septuagenarian in the weeks leading up to the killing. The union’s approach is part of a trend in Ontario since 2010. At least five co-owners have been ousted from their unit by a judge, a higher number than in Quebec, which more explicitly allows this measure.
“This is an extreme penalty, but the condominium believes it is commensurate with its infractions,” lawyers for the 9235 Jane Street syndicate wrote in November, a month before Francesco Villi shot five residents. Three of them had previously been members of the union’s board of directors. The shooter had been harassing them for years. The council had had enough and turned to one of the last resorts at its disposal: the eviction of the co-owner.
The board of directors believed that the man had committed a second time in contempt related to an order dating from 2019. The court had already found the shooter guilty of contempt in 2021 because he had spoken to employees of the building of his grievances, which was forbidden to him. However, the judge had not sanctioned the man since the latter had ended up respecting the order for a few months. But in the spring of 2022, according to the building’s union, the septuagenarian again broke the order, an outrage the council wanted to see reprimanded.
“We are seeing this kind of situation more and more where corporations are asking for eviction. It is often in cases of violence, harassment, verbal abuse, ”explains condominium lawyer Rodrigue Escayola. According to a 2016 census by University of British Columbia law professor Douglas Harris, six Ontario condo owners were kicked out of their unit for anti-social behavior between 2010 and 2014.e Escayola of Gowling WLG estimates there may be about one such eviction per year.
The phenomenon was however rare in Ontario until the Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corporation No. 747 v. Korolekh, in 2010. The decision to evict a lady because of her verbal and physical threats was unusual. “It had created a shock wave since in common law, the right to property is very strong,” explains Rodrigue Escayola. The decision set a precedent and, according to the lawyer, the eviction criteria therein were to some extent codified in a sub-section of the Condominium Act in 2015. The section in question n however, was never put into effect.
Few cases in Quebec
Very few such evictions have taken place in Quebec, even though the province is the only jurisdiction in North America that specifies in legislation that it is appropriate for a court to order the sale of a unit. of co-ownership due to the anti-social behavior of the owner. Recourse to article 1080 of the Civil Code is only used in “extreme cases”, underlines Me Ludovic Le Draoullec, condominium lawyer. The union must have already obtained an injunction and the injunction must have been violated.
A Quebec court has ordered the sale of a person’s unit for the first time because of their behavior under Section 1080 last summer. In 2011, a resident of a building in downtown Montreal was notably ordered not to cycle in the hallways of her building and not to harass the janitors. Ten years later, a judge ordered the sale of his unit — a “cure horse,” he admitted — under Section 1080. The decision was appealed.
An article still not in force in Ontario
Ontario could also have a legislative text allowing the eviction of a co-owner, but the latter was never proclaimed after being adopted in 2015. It is therefore still not in force. Subsection 135 (1) of the Condominium Act indicates that a judge could order the eviction (but not the sale) of a joint owner if the person poses a risk to the health of an individual and if he failed to comply with a court order.
Professor Douglas Harris believes the section would make it easier for a judge to obtain an eviction order than under current conditions. Me Escayola isn’t sure, but believes the subsection, at the very least, would send a clear signal to the community that eviction is possible. The subsection would also define the legal test for deportation.
However, all of these options depend on the will of a syndicate to take legal action against a co-owner. According to Rodrigue Escayola, the massacre in Vaughan could dampen the ardor of the unions in Ontario. “We don’t want to be the next building where this type of incident occurs,” he said. The impact of the killing will also be felt in Quebec, thinks Ludovic Le Draoullec. “It will make administrators question a lot about how to manage vulnerable people,” he said.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.